Yuvraj Singh excluded from the team due to fitness issues, says Saba Karim

Former Indian cricketer Saba Karim believes that Yuvraj Singh's exclusion from the Indian squad is due to fitness issues and not his form which is the general consensus. Meanwhile, chief national selector MSK Prasad stated that Yuvraj is still capable of making a comeback to the team.

Left hander Yuvraj Singh has been omitted from the Indian squad that will feature in the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka scheduled to begin from August 20. The MSK Prasad-led selection committee on Sunday announced the verdict of the squad. Former Indian wicketkeeper Saba Karim, who was a national selector in the last panel, stated that Yuvraj’s exclusion was more to do with his fitness than his form.

“Yuvi is a fighter but I believe going into the 2019 World Cup, it is more to do with his fitness rather than just form. Look, there’s a difference between 20-over fitness and 50-over fitness. It was our panel, who got Yuvraj back in 2015 for the Australia T20. At that point, we were looking only at the World T20 in India and Yuvraj’s experience. But now it’s different,” Saba Karim told PTI.

On the other hand, Manish Pandey and KL Rahul have made a comeback in this team. Saba Karim complimented Manish Pandey by saying that he is a great talent and deserves to be given sufficient opportunities to demonstrate his worth.

“I believe Manish (Pandey) is a great talent and should be given enough opportunities,” said Karim.

Karim also suggested that since the World Cup 2019 is just a year and a half away, the core team needs to play a lot of cricket to get into the groove.

“We have little over one and half years to the World Cup. The core team needs to get 40 matches at least. And Manish has done extremely well as India A captain. And he is perhaps one of the best fielders in current Indian line-up,” the former India stumper said.

On the other hand, MSK Prasad suggested that it was not the end of the road for the veteran Indian cricketer and added that the team will be rotated in order to find a perfect combination on road to the 2019 World Cup.

“Yuvraj is rested. The doors are never closed on anybody. Everybody has got a right to play cricket. It’s their passion. They are chasing their passion. In terms of selection, we try to select the best possible team," MSK Prasad said.

"We have started a policy where we have identified some set of players who will be considered for the next 4-5 months and we will rotate them," Prasad said in Pallekele, where India were playing Sri Lanka in the third Test. "After those 4-5 months, we will (know) that these are the certain players who will go on to play the 2019 World Cup.

"In that process, we have started rotating the players and resting some of the main players so we will see how some of these youngsters do, how they will fare in the next coming months or so. And then take a call by the end of the year."

KL Rahul who has emerged as India's best openers in all the format will be playing at No. 4 in the batting lineup announced Prasad.

"We are going to try out KL Rahul at No. 4 in this series. He is too good a player to sit out. Because Shikhar and Rohit are in very good form. These are different permutations and combinations we will keep trying till the end of this year and it will boil down to one particular pattern and then we will continue with that," he said.

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